Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Translation out of key

In crusty academia…






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Bertram: This translation smacks of prefabricated expressions.


Piers: Prefabricated?


Bertram: Listen to these… “That’s how I see it.” “That’s the kind of person I am.” “I ran 41 kilometers on the nose.” “Don’t misunderstand me.” “As far as I’m concerned...” “All in all…” “As I mentioned before…” “Forgive me for stating the obvious…” “Let me be more specific.” “But that’s another story.”


Piers: They sound natural enough.


Bertram: It’s a book of thoughts on running. Translated from the Japanese. The author describes what he thinks about when he goes jogging. The genre could be called reflective essays.


Piers: So?


Bertram: But on almost every page you have these corny “engaging the reader” type phrases.


Piers: Well maybe that was the intention of the writer. Surely the translator was just trying to capture the essence of the original.


Bertram: It’s just that those expressions don’t sound so stilted in Japanese, but when you put them into English they sound too formulaic for a great writer. A good writer in English would be simplifying the expressions or twisting the cliches from time to time. Like “I covered exactly 41 kilometers.” Or “It may be self-evident…” Or “What I mean is…” He may have translated the words of the original writer but sure missed getting the voice right. It's out of key.

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